Toyota’s WRC team, which competes in the World Rally Championship, confirmed less than a month ago that the 24-year-old will contest every WRC round next season as a factory driver.
This year Solberg secured the WRC2 title with Toyota’s Rally2 car. He was also handed a chance in Toyota’s top-class machine at Rally Estonia, where the Swede took a sensational victory. Those results were more than convincing demonstrations of his ability.
This weekend Solberg will drive Toyota’s Rally1 challenger in the Rally Dévoluy in France. The event gives him an excellent opportunity to test the car ahead of next season’s opening Rallye Monte Carlo.
The Dévoluy winter rally features asphalt stages in the same region where Monte’s stages have been run in recent years.
“It will be a bit of a shakedown, but at least I think it will be good preparation – otherwise you have only a one-day test before Monte Carlo and it is not so much you can learn if the conditions are different in the rally and things like that,” Solberg told Motorsport.com.
“I think it is good to have this rally as it will be in mixed conditions, so we can test a lot of things and tyres etcetera,” he underlined.
Solberg has already shown in the WRC’s second tier that he has plenty of speed on asphalt. The last time he competed in the top class on sealed-surface stages was at the Ypres Rally Belgium in 2022, when he drove for Hyundai.
“I think there is still a lot of experience on tarmac, which I can learn through different rallies which the other guys have done, where I’m still behind a little bit,” Solberg summed up.
Rallye National Hivernal du Dévoluy will be held on Saturday and Sunday with a total of ten special stages, covering 137 kilometres. Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux will also compete in the rally with Rally1 machinery.
